Scheduling

Cinematheque Houston Citizenry,

It seems the best way to go about addressing our scheduling issues would be to tackle it in a two-pronged manner.

First, we should have movie night EVERY OTHER SUNDAY. In my opinion, this should coincide with Rory's work schedule so that he can attend.

Second, we should have movie night EVERY OTHER MONDAY. The best way to do this whilst still carrying out our first objective would be to have the Monday movie nights on the Mondays that do not immediately follow a Sunday on which we held movie night.

Does this work for everyone?

Favorite Directors

It is always difficult to summarize all the movies we like into a list of 10. How about a list of favorite film directors? My basic criterion here is I have to watch at least 3 of the directors' films and I enjoy most of their works a lot. Here's my top 10 list and please post yours:

Orson Welles
Akria Kurosawa
Stanley Kubrick
Yasujiro Ozu
Federico Fellini
Francois Truffaut
Hayao Miyazaki
Jim Jarmusch
Wong Kar-Wai
Takeshi Kitano

I didn't put Martin Scorsese, even though I love Taxi Driver and Raging Bull a lot. His other movies are good too but I lost interest in his recent stuff. Godard is great, but sometimes he's too style-over-substance. Wes Anderson is on the bubble.... I don't watch enough David Lean, Kenji Mizoguchi and John Cassavetes movies, but I'm certainly interested. Other honorable mention: Pedro Almodovar, Hal Ashby, Michel Gondry, Edward Yang, Takashi Miike and probably more.

(next time, we'll talk about our favorite living/working directors)

Directions to Jason and Jennifer's for all attending parties

5115 Jackson #2

From Montrose: Left on Binz, Left on Jackson.
From 288: Exit Southmore, right on Southmore, right on Jackson, first house on the right.

This is my number: 979.235.7576

C'era una volta il West

Spaghetti Western DELUXE.

Director:
Sergio Leone

Writers:
Dario Argento (story) & Bernardo Bertolucci (story) ...

Release Date:
21 December 1968 (Italy)

Starring: Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards and CHARLES BRONSON

Never eat spaghetti on a first date.

conflicting schedule

Due to my new work scedule I will only be able to attend Movie Night every OTHER Sunday. This coming Sunday (4/29/07) will be the first I will not be able to attend due to this new schedule. I am trying to get a more agreeable schedule but until then I was wondering if we might be able to possibly change Movie Night to a different night on the weeks when I can't attend on Sunday. I don't want to inconvenience you but perhaps we could work something out that would work for everyone. What do you think?

4/22: Czech New Wave Trilogy, Part I

For my next three picks, I've chosen a trilogy of Czech New Wave films. Hopefully it'll be a fun adventure into the oft-overlooked "other" 1960s movement (the one that happened outside France).

Part I: INTIMATE LIGHTING (1965)



I chose Intimate Lighting as the first installment mostly because I've wanted to see it for quite some time and I can't hold out any longer. It was written by Ivan Passer and Jaroslav Papousek, Milos Forman's co-writers on Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball (both of which have been featured for movie night). It was also directed by Ivan Passer, who would later follow Forman to the USA to make films here (although obviously not as successfully). Intimate Lighting is often cited as one of the masterpieces of the Czech New Wave, and Milos Forman calls it one of his favorite films of all time.

Because Criterion Collection has decided, for some stupid reason, not to release Intimate Lighting on DVD, it's only available on VHS (the VHS was put out by Criterion Collection in 2000 - why not just put it out on DVD?). This means we'll have to watch it over at my place. Hopefully that's not a problem for anyone.

Czechoslovak New Wave Trilogy
Part I: INTIMATE LIGHTING (1965)
Part II: LEMONADE JOE (1964)
Part III: THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET (1965)

4/15 - Paris, Je T'aime

Tonight, we're screening "Paris, Je T'aime", which has not been not officially released in the United States yet. Here's a description from imdb:

Paris, je t'aime is about the plurality of cinema in one mythic location: Paris, the City of Love. Twenty filmmakers will bring their own personal touch, underlining the wide variety of styles, genres, encounters and the various atmospheres and lifestyles that prevail in the neighborhoods of Paris. Each director has been given five minutes of freedom, and we, as producers, carry the responsibility of weaving a single narrative unit out of those twenty moments. The 20 films will not appear in the order of the arrondissements, from one to twenty, but rather, in a pertinent narrative order, initially unknown to the audience. They will be fused together by transitional interstitial sequences, and also via the introduction and epilogue sequences of the feature film. Each transition will begin with the last shot of the previous film and will end with the first shot of the following film, and will have a threefold function: 1) The first is to extend the enchantment and the emotion of the previous segment, 2) The second is to prepare the audience for the surprise of the next segment, and 3) The third is to provide a general, comfortable and cohesive atmosphere to the feature film. The delightful and brief interludes of these transitions will enable the viewer to slide from one world to the next, featuring a recurring and unexpected character. This mysterious character is a witness to the Parisian life and helps create a continuous narration. It appears both in and in-between the films. In addition to the information these transitions will provide about the city and its people, their tone will be intentionally light often referring to famous scenes easily attributed to the history of Paris cinema. Similar specifications will be followed by the composer who will supervise the musical fusion between the films and the transitions as he creates the musical score of Paris, je t'aime. Considering the common theme of Paris and Love, the fusion between the films and the transitions, the fast pace of a fluid and complete storytelling, Paris, je t'aime will not be just another "anthology" picture. It will be a unique collective feature film that will constitute a two-hour cinematographic spectacle whose original structure will make for a dramatically different experience for its global audience. Written by Emmanuel Benbihy

La Strada/ Inland Whatever

As much as I've anticipated to see La Strada, I was still surprised by it in a nice way. It is heartbreaking and unique. Gelsomina is such a special character (looks & personality), she makes it impossible for the movie to be ordinary. The ironies in the film also make it very memorable.

I watched David Lynch's Inland Empire with Rory the other day. It is 3 hours long and it does not make any sense. Yeah, I fell asleep a couple times in the first 40 minutes, because I was tired and the movie is incomprehensible (as expected). It is 10 times more confusing than Muholland Drive. 90% of the time, the characters in the movie do not know what's going on. And from interviews I read, the lead actors (Laura Dern and the other dude) did not know what the movie is about when they filmed it. So basically, anyone who said the movie makes any sense is bullshit. I wouldn't mind watching parts of Inland Empire if it is 15 minutes long, as a short film. Yet having a 3-hour-long feature film with that kind of flow is unacceptable. Besides the "mind-bottling" nature of the movie, the constant influx of new characters only makes it more difficult for anyone to watch. However, the movie is so ridiculous I refused to go use the restroom in the middle of it because I did't want to miss any of the crazy shit. My only compliments would go to the haunting sounds of the film and how versatile Laura Dern was. Yet how dare so many critics (and even just random people on netflix) have such high praise for this movie. It is incomprehensible, purposely confusing and repetitive. Those out-of-focus super close-up shots got on my nerves too.

DVDs from Criterion that I have yet to watch

As you guys know, I've somehow befriended a gentleman who works for the marketing company that represents our favorite film publisher. When he can, he sends me the titles that I ask for, and even sets up interviews with the directors (like William Greaves). He also sends me films that I don't ask for and wouldn't usually be interested in, because (I think) they're films that are mostly ignored by the reviewers who do "New Release" columns, and this marketing copany has extra copies laying around.

Anyways, because I'm a bad person, I haven't watched some of the films he's sent me. I don't really want to show them for movie night, but I thought that maybe we could all watch them together, or someone could come watch them with me, or whatever. I just think it could be another element to Cinematheque Houston; Criterion titles that Austin owns but hasn't watched yet.

If y'all are interested in getting together sometime and checking them out, let me know!


The titles:



"At once a compelling piece of anti-isolationist propaganda and a quick-witted wartime thriller, 49th Parallel is a classic early work from the inimitable British filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. When a Nazi U-boat crew, headed by the ruthless Eric Portman, is stranded in Canada during the thick of World War II, the men evade capture by hiding out in a series of rural communities, before trying to cross the border into the still-neutral United States. Both soul-stirring and delightfully entertaining, 49th Parallel features a colorful cast of characters played by larger-than-life actors Laurence Olivier, Raymond Massey, Anton Walbrook, and Leslie Howard."





(Not yet released!) I actually plan to write about this one for my column, so it would be interesting to get everyone's criticisms and interpretations to help shape the article.

"Seamlessly interweaving archival war footage and a fictional narrative, Stuart Cooper’s immersive account of one twenty-year-old’s journey from basic training to the front lines of D-day brings all the terrors and isolation of war to life with jolting authenticity. Overlord, impressionistically shot by Stanley Kubrick’s longtime cinematographer John Alcott, is both a document of World War II and a dreamlike meditation on man’s smallness in a large, incomprehensible machine."

a review

Needless to say, "Naked" was probably the most disturbing film we watched at movie night. The film is beautifully shot and the music was haunting, but there is a lot about the film that makes me think over and over. There are all these "whys" and "what the" in my head. I found myself agreeing a lot with the following review I read from netflix:

"This film is beautifully shot, beautifully scored, and pretty well acted. That being said, I'm a little disapointed that more people aren't more critical of it. The main character is a completely self concerned, self righteous "lost boy" who wanders around London berating nearly everyone he comes into contact with and abusing any woman who allows him into their bed (as well as those that refuse to). He is highly inteligent with a keen ability to smell weakness and shut down anyone with his impossibly witty, stabbing banter. More than a couple of his monologues/rantings, however, devovle into cinematic masturbation (or filmmaker self indulgence). All the female characters in the film are completely weak-willed, ineffectual creatures who allow themselves to be abused both mentally and physically and then ask for more. At the end of the movie I was left asking myself what the point was supposed to be. Unfortunately there is no point. There is just a lot of beautifully shot ugliness which many critics labeled "social realism" and gave it high marks. I expect more. I expect that if you're going to open a movie with the main character raping a young woman that some profound social commentary or point should be made about this guy and his behavior. I listened to the directors commentary after watching the movie to see if he was trying to do something which I missed, but no, he wanted to do exactly what it seemed he was doing: introduce a totally depraved character committing one of the worst acts and then gradually show that he's actually a very complicated character. What? Complexity of character in no way justifies or explains the kind of behavior we see in the film. This is a movie which grapples with some serious subject matter but fails to follow through and attach a meaning to all of it, to give it a purpose. I would go so far as to say this is irresponsible film making. For instance (and most notably), what is this movie saying about violence towards women?"

Fellini for you

In my continuing effort to expose myself and the group to films we have not yet seen by great directors, I decided to pick "La Strada" by Fellini this week. I am most likely going to pick Jean Renoir's film "Grand Illusion" next so you may want to hold off on watching it until then. Here is the Netflix synopsis:

Italian auteur Federico Fellini helmed this powerful rumination on love and hate, the Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film in 1956. This restored version (introduced by Martin Scorsese) tells the story of gentle Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), sold by her mother to the bullying circus performer, Zampanò, with whom she falls in love. When a clown, Il Matto (Richard Basehart), wins her heart, a doomed love triangle inevitably develops.